Thin Mintz

Recently I have been hearing mentions of it being “girl scout cookie time”, and although now I obviously abstain, I still get a little nostalgic thinking about my short lived years peddling those things. I was a girl scout for just five years… but in that time, I easily ate hundreds (no thousands) of girl scout cookies. I mean, I had to spend my allowance on something, right? The flavor I loved the most was thin mints… by a long shot. I could crush an entire packet of those things in one sitting, without a single complaint from my belly. That’s like 30 cookies at once. We had a very serious relationship, thin mints and I.

Happily, I found my love re-kindled with a homemade version of the classic cookie. When I was making the ice cream sandwiches last week, I was thinking that the dough would make an excellent crunchy wafer if baked a little longer. Then I thought about how I could easily slip some minty flavor in there, dip it in chocolate and re-create my childhood cookie love. The rest is history.

These babies taste pretty damn good and authentic, if I do say so myself. No hydrogenated oils, gluten, or animal products needed.

Thin Mintz ~ Vegan & Gluten Free

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegan margarine, cold

1/4 tsp peppermint oil or 1 1/2-2 tsp pure peppermint extract

1 cup organic sugar

1 cup sorghum flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup potato starch

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 of a cup almond milk

2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream together margarine, peppermint oil or extract and sugar together until creamy and smooth.
In separate bowl, sift together sorghum flour, cocoa powder, potato starch, xanthan gum and baking soda. Use your hands to thoroughly get all of the lumps out so that the flours are very well mixed with no clumps of cocoa powder remaining.

Gradually add flours to margarine/sugar mixture until crumbly. Continue mixing while adding in the almond milk. The dough will seize up and become stiff. Make sure all flour is well incorporated and knead briefly. Press into a disk, wrap loosely with saran wrap or wax paper and chill in freezer for about 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 °F.

Divide dough in half and pinch off sections to make about 3/4″ round balls.

Flatten dough ball between your palms and shape gently to form a flat cookie… like a thin mint. (The warmer the dough gets, the easier it is to work with. Don’t let it get too warm, though.)

I found it handy to get it mostly into a flat patty in my palm, and then place on my parchment and flatten it even more with the bottom of a glass or a spoon.

They should look like this before flattening them a second time:

These are “thin” mints, so you want them to be about a 1/4 to 1/5 of an inch (5-8mm) thick. You know, thin. :) The thinner you make ‘em, the crispier they get… which is exactly what you want.

Bake the first tray for 16 minutes, and then remove from oven and let cool.

Repeat with second half of dough and bake for the same amount of time.

Allow both trays of cookies to cool completely.

To coat the cookies:

Melt chocolate chips in double boiler over medium low heat until chocolate is super smooth. Dip one side of the cookie into the chocolate and then carefully spread the chocolate into a thin layer over the entire cookie. Wearing food grade gloves while doing this is very helpful, ’cause then you can just use your fingers to spread it around. A silicon pastry brush is also useful… just try and get a thin layer of chocolate spread onto the cookies. Be sure to coat the bottom and sides too, and then gently place on a silicon mat or wax paper to firm up.

Leave at room temperature until chocolate hardens.

Go crazy over gluten free vegan thin mints!

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35 Responses to Thin Mintz

I made these to take to a holiday vegan cookie swap! Turned out so yummy. I doubled the recipe though and ended up adding more vegan margarine and almond milk. I think after doubling I added a 1/4 more of margarine and a 1/2 cup more of almond milk. It was enough to get the dough from crumbly to moist enough to form the cookies. Using a silicone pastry brush worked beautifully to coat with chocolate (used two 10 oz bags of vegan chocolate chips). I put them in the fridge to set.

I made these at my husband’s request and he said, “These are just as I remember them!” :)

I’m a baker with 2 left thumbs…in other words, pretty much hopeless. But I tried making these mints and they turned out wonderfully, especially after I finally figured out how to melt the chocolate properly! :)
Thanks for a great tasting recipe! Looking forward now to trying my hand at other baking recipes, too.

Oh yummy! I love thin mints they’re my favorite as well. I do remember eating a whole sling of thin mints in one sitting. Can’t say I ever ate the whole box in one sitting though. So I give you props for that!